Our young people - their capacities to think, understand, investigate, and innovate - are America's future. Robert Reich More Quotes by Robert Reich More Quotes From Robert Reich In the life of a nation, few ideas are more dangerous than good solutions to the wrong problems. Robert Reich dangerous problem ideas We are creating a one size fits all system that needlessly brands many young people as failures, when they might thrive if offered a different education whose progress was measured differently. Paradoxically we're embracing standardized tests just when the economy is eliminating standardized jobs. Robert Reich creating jobs people Averages don't always reveal the most telling realities. You know, Shaquille O'Neal and I have an average height of 6 feet. Robert Reich humorous funny reality There's a great debate going on, you know, on whether we're moving toward a system of giant oligopolies or a system of multiples of small businesses. Which is it? I think it's both. In every sector of the economy, we have giant brands that are trustworthy guides to what's good, and then a vast number of small groups, many of them project-based, sometimes folding and re-creating, that are offering products and services through those giant global brands. Robert Reich sometimes moving thinking We do not want to live in a theocracy. We should maintain that barrier and government has no business telling someone what they ought to believe or how they should conduct their private lives. Robert Reich government want believe Regardless of how you interpret the facts, you have to come to the conclusion that inequality is widening in the US and in almost every other country. Robert Reich inequality country facts Liberals are concerned about the concentration of wealth because it almost inevitably leads to a concentration of power that undermines democracy. Robert Reich concentration-of-wealth concerned democracy The intellectual equipment needed for the job of the future is an ability to define problems, quickly assimilate relevant data, conceptualize and reorganize the information, make deductive and inductive leaps with it, ask hard questions about it, discuss findings with colleagues, work collaboratively to find solutions and then convince others. Robert Reich data decision jobs When top executives get huge pay hikes at the same time as middle-level and hourly workers lose their jobs and retirement savings, or have to accept negligible pay raises and cuts in health and pension benefits, company morale plummets. I hear it all the time from employees: This company, they say, is being run only for the benefit of the people at the top. So why should we put in extra effort, commit extra hours, take on extra responsibilities? We'll do the minimum, even cut corners. This is often the death knell of a company. Robert Reich running retirement jobs Terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face. Robert Reich terrorism danger faces The core principle is that we want an economy that works for everyone, not just for a small elite. We want equal opportunity, not equality of outcome. We want to make sure that there's upward mobility again, in our society and in our economy. Robert Reich upward-mobility principles opportunity The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich. Robert Reich class long america When I was a kid, the bigger boys would pick on me. So I got an idea that I would make alliances with older boys, like just one or two, who would be my protectors. Robert Reich boys kids ideas I'm 40 years old. What I have seen my whole life is widening income inequality. Robert Reich income life-is years There is a deep desire to change the power structure. Robert Reich desire-to-change structure desire If you want to be a change agent, you have to ready to fail. Robert Reich agents failing want I think the Obama Administration has done a lousy job marketing and selling and explaining this entire thing. And, as a result, all of these right-wing front organizations financed by the Koch brothers, are blanketing the airwaves with lies about Obamacare. And people are scared. Robert Reich brother jobs lying In the early 1970s, Milton Friedman argued that corporations should not be socially responsible because they had no mandate to be; they existed to make money, not to be charitable institutions. But in the economy of the 21st century, corporations cannot be socially responsible, if social responsibility is understood to mean sacrificing profits for the sake of some perceived social good. That's because competition has become so much more intense. Robert Reich business responsibility mean One of the most difficult things is to get truthful people. Nobody can manage well if they don't have a lot of mirrors around them that are honest, that tell them what they're doing is wrong or wrongheaded or misconceived. And in every large bureaucracy on earth, most people are afraid to tell the boss the truth. Robert Reich boss earth people Corporations are not people, despite what the Supreme Court says, and they don't need or deserve handouts. Robert Reich corporations people needs
